32 BIEDS OF A MARYLAT^D FARMo 



many birds. The kingbirds (fig. 9) had, however, shown a great liking 

 for rose-chafers, as these two, the only ones collected, had eaten 15 

 and 20 of the insects respectively. 



May-beetle. — Ma3-beetles attract onh^ the larger species; their hard 

 shells offer too much resistance to small birds. During their season — 

 May and June — 292 bird stomachs were examined, but Ma^^-beetles 

 were found in only 16. These stomachs were from birds of the fol- 

 lowing ten species: Brown thrasher, orchard oriole, phoebe, catbird, 

 gray-cheeked thrush, blue jay. crow, crow blackbird, screech owl, and 

 broad-winged hawk. This record is far below a fair average, for at 

 the time it was made the beetles were rare; moreover, the two famous 

 beetle-eaters, the crow and the crow blackbird, were represented only 

 by a single individual of each kind. 



Cutworms. — Similarly unfavorable conditions attended the destruc- 

 tion of cutworms (fig. 14), though these insects are obtainable for a 

 longer period and are edible for small as well as large birds. No seri- 

 ous outbreak of this pest occurred. Had there been one, birds would 

 have been found combating it, for all species that are in the slightest 

 degree insectivorous and feed at all on the ground show a marked 

 liking for cutworms. 



Grasshoppers. — Grasshoppers (fig. 10) when abundant are to the bird 

 what bread is to man. They were, hoAvever. comparatively rare at 



Fig. 10. — Grasshopper (after Riley; 

 loaned by Division of Entomology). 



Marshall Hall; therefore only 71 of the 615 native birds collected had 

 eaten them, though most of these had made them the major part of 

 their food. The list of species i eating- them is as follows: 



List of birds examined whose stomachs contained grasshoppers. 



BobAvhite. Orchard oriole. Cardinal. 



Kingbird. Crow black1)ird. Maryland yellow-throat. 



Great crested flycatcher. Savanna sparrow. Catbird. 



Blue jay. Grasshopper sparrow. Carolina wren. 



Common crow. Henslow sparrow. House wren. 



Cowbird. Chipping sparrow. Brown creeper. 



Eed- winged blackbird. Field sparrow. Eobin. 



Meadowlark. Song sparrow. Bluebird. 



Had grasshoppers been abundant the birds would undoubtedly have 

 destro3^ed them in large numbers. Their scarcity may possibly be 

 due to the abundance of birds at Marshall Hall. 



Ants. — Whenever temperature allowed any insects to occur in appre- 

 ciable numbers, ants were abundant, and at times they were the most 



